Weapon Finesse, Power Attack, and Combat Expertise?

[Creamsteak]

Simple question, and I'm hoping for opinions mostly.

Why is it that combat expertise and power attack don't have a base attack bonus prerequisite, but weapon finesse does? I realize that the first bit can be related to power attack and combat expertise being important feats for classes that don't get full base attack bonus, and primarily because of thier use as prerequisite feats. However, if that's the case, then why does Weapon Finesse, which is vastly more useful and doesn't have a base attack bonus dependancy beyond the pre-req does.

I'm pretty much convinced to drop the BAB req on Weapon Finesse because of this. I think that a rogue should be able to focus on dexterity for melee attacks at first level the same way that a fighter can use power attack or combat expertise, so I'm probably going to make this change.

 

[Longbow]

Hmm, maybe the designers intended to let high dex characters that aren´t Fighters not overshadow the warrior classes. Or they don´t want them to have similar good chanches to hit in melee combat from the start almost as good as a Fighter.

 

[Darklone]

Get a halfling fighter with a spiked chain and drop his bonus to dex and size to hit into Power Attack and your average damage will be higher than a humans

 

[The Souljourner]

Yeah, except then the human is up by 2 feats, 10 feet of speed, and doesn't have to worry about high dex.

In general, I think weapon finesse is not very good. If you get the chance to more or less choose your stats (point buy), you're almost always better off just having a higher strength. I've seen halfling rogues with piddly strength and weapon finesse. They can hit ok, but they do diddly for damage. On the other hand, I've seen strong rogues who were often more dangerous than the warriors of the party.

-The Souljourner

 

[argo]

Near as I can figgure (and its not like I know one of the designers or anything ) the only reason for the preq on Weapon Finesse is for very low level balance. ie: the designers simply did not want to allow a first level rogue to start out with Weapon Finesse.

Personally I don't agree. For one, the ability to finesse is usually central to the character concept of anyone who takes the feat. For another, generally speaking, finesse is inferior to good old THF. I have house ruled the preq away. Course maybe somebody else knows something I don't.